Events Editor

Angela Johnson

Angela Johnson is the events editor for kawarthaNOW.com.

Angela is mom to two kids and, based in her Cobourg home office, she offers support services to a variety of creative professionals.

When she’s not working, Angela is an aspiring creative photographer and enjoys supporting her kids in developing their own artistic talents. Her new dog, so far, has no artistic talent. She’s still holding out hope.

Current Writers

Paula Kehoe

A regular contributor to kawarthaNOW, Paula Kehoe is a freelance writer based in Peterborough. She holds a post-graduate Journalism diploma with a specialization in photojournalism from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. A former photojournalist at Sun Media in Calgary and communications consultant at Canadian Tire and Sun Life Financial in Toronto, Paula branched out on her own in 2016 to form Red Rock Communications, a Peterborough-based boutique communications agency specializing in content creation, media relations, social media management, and event marketing. You can follow Paula on Twitter at @pkehoe1 and Instagram at @redrockpr or visit www.redrockcommunications.ca.

Paul Rellinger

Paul Rellinger a.k.a Relly is an award-winning journalist and longtime former newspaper editor still searching for the perfect lead.

When he’s not putting pen to paper, Paul is on a sincere but woefully futile quest to own every postage stamp ever issued. A rabid reader of history, Paul claims to know who killed JFK but can’t say out of fear for the safety of his oh so supportive wife Mary, his three wonderful kids and his three spirited grandchildren. Paul counts among his passions Peterborough’s rich live music scene, the Toronto Maple Leafs, slopitch and retrieving golf balls from the woods.

Eva Fisher

Eva Fisher is a savvy marketer who understands regional tourism and the power of partnerships and buying local. Eva was previously the General Manager of Kawartha Country Wines, a premium fruit and grape winery in Buckhorn, as well as Manager at The Kawartha Store, a clothing and shoe store in Fenelon Falls specializing in Canadian-made fashion. You can contact her at eva@kawarthanow.com.

Sam Tweedle

Since 2013, Sam Tweedle has been writing as an arts and culture journalist for kawarthaNOW, with special attention to Peterborough’s theatrical community. However, his career as an arts writer goes back further via his website Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict where Sam has interviewed some of the entertainment world’s most notable and beloved entertainers. Sam’s pop culture writing has been featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, The National Post, CNN.com, Filmfax Magazine and The New Yorker. You can follow Sam on Instagram at sam_tweedle_z where he posts about his four greatest loves: cats, comic books, movies, and records. Sam no longer uses Twitter because, as far as he’s concerned, it’s no longer a thing.

Shannon Taylor

With her finger on the pulse of the Peterborough arts scene, Shannon Taylor is committed to keeping you up to date on all the latest news and trends. Shannon’s interests range from audio visual installation to drawing and painting in her signature whimsical style. You may run into Shannon in the great outdoors, sketchbook in hand, or at a local art opening. Follow her on Twitter @shannonmichelet and on Instagram at @shannonmicheletaylor.

Gordon Gibb

As an author, he has published in major newspapers and magazines and currently writes for LawyersandSettlements.com, a web portal based in Los Angeles. He has published three books: two on the life of Lester B. Pearson, and a book of essays. A novel is due in 2016. Gordon also operates GordonGibb.com, a freelance voiceover business.

Photographer

Linda McIlwain

Combining her passion for music and photography, Linda McIlwain loves to head out to the local music scene camera in hand.

Capturing the emotion and energy the artists are expressing, she strives to make the viewer feel the music through her photographs.

When not photographing her favourite bands, Linda enjoys capturing the beauty of nature and everyday life.

Weekly Guest Columnists

Stu Harrison

Stuart “Stu” Harrison writes a weekly column about business news and hosts a business segment every Monday evening on CHEX-TV’s Newswatch. Stu has extensive marketing and advertising experience and was owner of Harrison Advertising. He is currently the General Manager of the Greater Peterborough Area Chamber of Commerce.

GreenUP

For more than 20 years, GreenUP has been central and eastern Ontario’s leading organization focused on issues of environmental education, sustainability, and stewardship.

GreenUP is a non-profit charity and an active community organization that offers dozens of programs and services to those living in the Peterborough & Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario. GreenUP’s programs focus on facilitating positive action and provide the tools to make small changes in the home or cottage that can create a large and lasting impact on our environment.

Mary J. Breen

Mary J. Breen has fiction and nonfiction published in national newspapers, essay collections, travel magazines, health journals, and literary magazines, including Brick, The Christian Science Monitor, Ars Medica, Boston Literary Magazine, and The New Quarterly. She was a regular contributor to The Toast. She lives in Peterborough where, among other things, she teaches memoir writing.

Lauren Bridle

Lauren Bridle holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree with a specialization in broadcast production from Carleton University. She is currently completing her Master’s of Fine Arts in Documentary Media at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

After growing up in Canada, Lauren developed an interest in Canadian history and geography. Her work aims to display Canada’s diverse landscape while investigating the history of the land.

Lauren is currently working on her thesis film for Ryerson University; an investigation into the secrets Lovesick Lake holds beneath the water’s surface.

Alli Bunting

Alli Bunting is a current International Youth Internship Program Intern at Arise and Shine, based in Jinja, Uganda. As a white, middle-class, educated woman, her Bachelor’s in International Development and Master’s in Global Development Studies opened her eyes to the (often invisible) Western/White privilege that she experiences, and made her passionate about sharing this knowledge with others. Having spent time overseas in India, Nicaragua, South Korea, and Uganda, she has worked on environment, health, and education projects and is engaged in unlearning systemic oppression, and dismantling mainstream narratives about the developing world. In her spare time, Alli is often trailing behind her tall partner on a hike, attempting to calculate time differences, or searching for coffee. You can follow her blog at allibunting.wordpress.com, or find her on Instagram at al.leigh.7.

Ann Douglas

Ann Douglas sparks conversations that matter about parenting and mental health. She is a bestselling parenting author (her most recent book is Parenting Through the Storm) and the weekend parenting columnist for CBC Radio. A passionate and inspiring speaker, Ann delivers keynote addresses and leads small-group workshops at health, parenting, and education conferences across the country. She lives and works in Peterborough, Ontario. Her website is anndouglas.net.

Kait Dueck

House Manager and Volunteer Coordinator at Showplace Performance Centre, Kait Dueck has had the privilege of being a part of downtown Peterborough’s artistic community since she was whisked from the wilds North of Havelock to attend PCVS’ Integrated Arts Program at the tender age of 14.

Since then, Kait has had the opportunity to perform in in a plethora of theatrical productions, become a political scientist of sorts via Carleton University, and sometimes work and play joyfully as a vocalist.

Outside of music and theatre, some of her favourite things include her superlative immediate family members, local ecology, gender studies, the spring migration (and all things feathered), and her fuzzy life partners, Dorothy Parker and Henry.

Michael Fazackerley

Michael Fazackerley is a regular contributor to kawarthaNOW with the monthly “Art in the Street” column.

He is an enthusiastic promoter of Peterborough & the Kawarthas vibrant arts community and a big fan and supporter of all the music, culture, and quality of life that Peterborough and the area has to offer.

Nicole Grady

Matt Higgs

Matt Higgs was GreenUP’s Communications and Marketing Specialist and authored a weekly column focused on all things environmental that was published in the Peterborough Examiner and on kawarthaNOW.com.

A native of New Brunswick, Matt has called the Kawarthas and Northumberland home since 2008.

Peter Hughes

Peter Hughes is the Executive Director of Peterborough GreenUP. With 28 years of public service, Peter has directed a municipal Parks and Recreation department and taught in post-secondary education. Peter’s formal education is in Environmental Resource science and community development.

Peter has been active throughout the Greater Peterborough, City of Kawartha Lakes, and northern Durham region as a volunteer with emerging community groups. He is an avid community builder who uses citizen science and community gardening as a way to promote active citizenship.

Bill Kimball

Bill Kimball has been involved in many aspects of the Peterborough arts community, particularly in the areas of contemporary dance, theatre and performance.

He has been instrumental in the creation of a number of live performance spaces in Peterborough, beginning in the early 1980s with City Stage (a performance space aligned with Artspace that later became the Union Theatre) and continuing to the present with various renovations to the Market Hall.

In 1994, Bill created a nationally recognized dance presenting program called Peterborough New Dance, which later expanded its mandate into other forms of performance and became Public Energy, a name which reflects his desire to integrate the work of contemporary artists into public life as much as possible.

Carol Lawless

Carol Lawless is the fund development coordinator at the New Canadians Centre Peterborough. She is also a writer and editor with more than 30 years’ experience. Carol lives in Peterborough with her daughters Grace and Joan and their beagle, Lally. You can follow Carol on Twitter at @CarolLawless.

Elaine McCarthy

Elaine McCarthy is the Co-ordinator of the PC Cooking School, located upstairs at the Great Canadian Superstore at Lansdowne Place in Peterborough.

Elaine has been cooking professionally for over 20 years and running the cooking school for five years. A mother of two girls, she has a passion for healthy eating and for teaching children about the importance of the food that we consume.

Sarah Lazure

Sarah Lazure is Artistic Producer at Peterborough Symphony Orchestra.

Though relatively new to orchestral music, Sarah has a lifelong passion for the arts. She is trained in communications design and project management, and has worked with arts, environmental and service organizations in Canada and the United Kingdom. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Fleming College.

Jeanne Pengelly

Jeanne Pengelly is a television and radio news journalist with a Master’s Degree in Journalism.

Even before she got her first typewriter at age 12, she had decided she would be a writer. Highlights of her career include founding the McMaster University creative writing journal, living in a remote northern community on James Bay where she edited a newspaper and trained young television journalists, and being a non-fiction nominee for the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association.

Jeanne’s many interests include creative writing, photography, music, teaching, needlecrafts, fitness, and golf. You can follow Jeanne on Twitter @JeannePengelly.

Jennifer Pinarski

Jennifer Pinarski is a born-and-raised Kawartha girl who gave up her big city job and lifestyle to live in rural Ontario with her husband while staying home to raise their two young children.

Her enthusiasm for active adventure is contagious and she loves to share the area’s best family-friendly attractions. When Jennifer isn’t blogging for Today’s Parent, she can be found chasing her barefoot kids though the great outdoors, tweeting and Instagramming as she goes.

Terry Rees

Terry Rees is the Executive Director of the Federation of Ontario Cottagers’ Associations (FOCA), and is based in Peterborough, Ontario. FOCA has represented the interests of Ontario’s waterfronts for over 50 years, and is one of the largest landowner membership organizations in the Province.

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ABOUT US

Our mandate is to provide current events and community information to residents, visitors and cottagers in Peterborough and The Kawarthas and all surrounding communities — from Lindsay and the City of Kawartha Lakes to Campbellford, north to Haliburton and Bancroft and south to the Lakeshore — and all places in between.Contact UsOur Editorial Team